Editing Mirror (section)

==== Religious function of the real and depicted mirror ====
[[File:Melong Dorje.jpg|thumb|Drubthob Melong Dorje (1243–1303), a lineage holder of the [[Vima Nyingtik]], depicted wearing a mirror hanging from his neck]]
In the [[Middle Ages]], mirrors existed in various shapes for multiple uses. Mostly they were used as an accessory for personal hygiene but also as tokens of courtly love, made from [[Ivory carving|ivory]] in the ivory-carving centers in Paris, Cologne and the Southern Netherlands.<ref name=court2018/> They also had their uses in religious contexts as they were integrated in a special form of [[Pilgrim badge|pilgrim badges]] or pewter/lead mirror boxes<ref name=bojm2018/> From the late 14th century. Burgundian ducal inventories show us that the dukes owned a mass of mirrors or objects with mirrors, not only with religious iconography or inscriptions, but combined with reliquaries, religious paintings or other objects that were distinctively used for personal piety.<ref name=sche2013/> Considering mirrors in paintings and book illumination as depicted artifacts and trying to draw conclusions about their functions from their setting, one of these functions is to be an aid in personal prayer to achieve self-knowledge and knowledge of God, in accord with contemporary theological sources. For example, the famous [[Arnolfini Portrait|Arnolfini Wedding]] by [[Jan van Eyck]] shows a constellation of objects that can be recognized as one which would allow a praying man to use them for his personal piety: the mirror surrounded by scenes of the Passion to reflect on it and on oneself, a [[rosary]] as a device in this process, the veiled and cushioned bench to use as a [[prie-dieu]], and the abandoned shoes that point in the direction in which the praying man kneeled.<ref name=sche2013/> The metaphorical meaning of depicted mirrors is complex and many-layered, e.g. as an attribute of [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]], the "speculum sine macula" (mirror without blemish), or as attributes of scholarly and theological wisdom and knowledge as they appear in book illuminations of different [[Four Evangelists|evangelists]] and authors of theological treatises. Depicted mirrors – orientated on the physical properties of a real mirror – can be seen as metaphors of knowledge and reflection and are thus able to remind beholders to reflect and get to know themselves. The mirror may function simultaneously as a symbol and as a device of a moral appeal. That is also the case if it is shown in combination with virtues and vices, a combination which also occurs more frequently in the 15th century: the moralizing layers of mirror metaphors remind the beholder to examine themself thoroughly according to their own virtuous or vicious life. This is all the more true if the mirror is combined with iconography of death. Not only is Death as a corpse or skeleton holding the mirror for the still-living personnel of paintings, illuminations and prints, but the skull appears on the convex surfaces of depicted mirrors, showing the painted and real beholders their future face.<ref name=sche2013/>